Visitors repeatedly trapped in Fort Lauderdale building elevator

The elevator at Emerald Lake Plaza off Stirling Road is repeatedly breaking down and trapping people inside.

Why this matters: Elderly visitors are having to be carried up the stairs with their walkers and wheelchairs to get to their appointments.

Tenants at the three-story building include medical, law and other professional offices.

What they're saying: "When it's hot and you're exasperated because you're already handicapped to then have to be carried, you should see their faces. It would say everything," tenant Warren Cohn tells Axios.

He adds, "Seeing that messes up my day because it hurts me, like it hurts my heart."

Between the lines: Cohn says the building's elevator has not been working properly for the past several months.

It's either out of order for days, he says, or when it is working, people get stuck inside, needing Hollywood Fire Rescue to get them out.

"If it happens a couple times, things happen. I understand that, but this is something happening three, maybe four times a week," he tells Axios.

By the numbers: Fire rescue has been called seven times since mid-April to get people out of the elevator, records show.

The department was most recently called on June 15 and 16.

The other side: FIRM Realty, the property management company, calls the repeated outages "unacceptable" and blames maintenance contractor TK Elevator.

"The failures of the past several months reflect a breakdown in vendor performance, not deferred maintenance or aging equipment that has been left to fail," Mark Machado, director of operations, tells Axios.

He says ownership is prepared to "spend whatever is necessary" and is considering replacing the elevator.

Yes, but: A TK Elevator spokesperson tells Axios that the elevator is more than 20 years old and the company provided a modernization proposal in early May.

"TK Elevator has been in communication with this customer to plan for a full modernization of the system," the spokesperson says.